Padua center is home of about 200 different species of silkworms

This is an amazingcreation, which has a hidden talent. It was worn by the emperors, they were paid, fought for it. Silk – the most expensive cloth in the history of mankind. The origin of this gentle sliding material shall little caterpillar – silkworm, who lives in East Asia. Initially silk production secret was known only in China, today silk industry is spread all over the world. On one of the modern factory for the breeding of silkworms visited Italian photographer Alessandro Bianchi.

Padua center is home to about 200 different species of silkworms. What you hope is to revive the silk industry Made in Italy, which has at least a thousand years of history. The origin of silk in China enmeshed numerous legends. According to one of them, the wife of the Chinese emperor Si Ling Chi had tea in the garden when a mulberry tree into her cup down caterpillar cocoon. Pulling out of the cocoon of the cup, the Empress found that it consists of a touch-friendly yarns. Then the girl got the idea to weave the fabric of this thread. Silkworm cocoons. After the discovery of the legendary Empress Xi Ling Shi silk production spread throughout China, becoming one of the main export items. The hatched from the cocoon of a silkworm butterfly. Silk production – one of the oldest human crafts. The first mention of the production of this material are found in China and belong to the fifth millennium BC. For thousands of years the Chinese kept secret technique of making silk fabric. Disclosure was punishable by death. Over time, however, with the development of the Silk Road, “a mystery”, came to Korea, Japan and India. In the homeland of the material, in China, silk was used not only for tissue manufacture. Because it made the paper. This paper was an order of magnitude more expensive than bamboo, but kept much longer. Silkworms eat only mulberry leaves white. For pupation the caterpillar needs a framework that will hold the cocoon. Factories are peculiar rods-kokonniki. Insects laid yarn in the form of eights, rhythmically shaking his head up to 230 000 times for 2-3 days. Thread length can reach up to 1000 meters.

The silkworm lays eggs. For every female can lay up to 800 eggs such. Deferred tiny butterfly eggs, weight 200 pieces of eggs is less than 1, the size of the larvae after hatching increased 10 000 times. Each butterfly lives only a few days, so it is very important to quickly find a partner . for fertilization silkworm cocoons come in different colors: green, orange, purple – but for the production of silk needed only white. Selected cocoons are immersed in boiling water. This is done to kill the caterpillar inside without damaging the silk thread. The silk thread is thinner than a human hair eight times. At the same time it is very strong and durable. To make one silk dress, needed 2,000 such cocoons, and this – about 70 . kg of leaves or two mulberry silk cocoons come in different shapes: oblong, oval, with jumpers. The newly hatched butterfly silkworm. Modern breeding butterflies are blind and can not fly. exported from China silk cocoons.

Silk fiber consists of 75% fibroin and 25% of sericin. Also present and fats, waxes, and mineral substances. The width of the silk thread – about 32 m, the length can reach one and a half kilometers.